FAQ: I started Exercising And GAINED Weight, Does Muscle Weigh More Than Fat?

I started Exercising And GAINED Weight, Does Muscle Weigh More Than Fat?

No! Muscle doesn’t weigh any more than anything else. 1 lb of muscle weighs the same as 1 lb of fat.

Think of two things…Pennies and Feathers. A 1 pound bag of feathers would be HUGE in size because they are light and fluffy….a 1 pound bag of pennies would be much smaller because pennies are small and compact. BUT on a scale, the one pound of feathers still says one pound and so does the pennies. Muscle is small and compact, fat is big and fluffy.

The accurate terminology would be that the volume of muscle is denser than the volume of fat.

However, that is not the reason you gain weight right after a workout. Workouts can cause changes on the scale due to our hydration level, inflammation from muscle damage repair (delayed onset muscle soreness) and even the amount of intestinal by-product, urine and blood volume. It takes much longer to build muscle, and even still you would be losing fat so they would cancel each other out.

BONUS TIPS: If you started exercising remember two things

If you are trying to LOSE weight do NOT eat calories BURNED. The whole idea is to BURN more than you EAT.

It’s REALLY easy to over estimate what you BURN on that treadmill and SUPER easy to underestimate what you ate. Take the read-out of calories burned during your workout as a pat on the back that you did a good thing for your body but don’t stress out too much about it during weight loss mode. Work hard and you’ll see results!